The International Finance Forum (IFF) has issued its Global AI Competitiveness Index Project to build a comprehensive system for assessing AI competitiveness, while evaluating and comparing various countries’ AI strength and development potential. The IFF and world's top Big Data analyst Deep Knowledge Group applied the metrics of technical development/applications, human capital, policy/regulation, and market acceptance/infrastructure to jointly conduct their study. This first chapter, Global AI Enterprises, discusses the top countries by number and density of AI companies and startups, and their funding. This second part discusses company density.

Singapore, Israel, and Switzerland lead in AI company density at 162.8, 135.2, and 73.6 per million in population, respectively, with the US fourth at 61.2 per million. The UAE and Hong Kong, China are also in the top 10 countries/regions in the world in AI enterprise density.

Singapore’s support for its AI ​​sector drives its swift development. The government is building a world-leading digital economy, planning to invest over SGD500 million (USD370 million) in AI R&D. Singapore’s national AI strategy targets five key areas: transport, urban management, healthcare, education, and security. Singapore’s world-class technical infrastructure has an over 90 percent internet penetration and one of the world’s fastest broadband speeds. Its government is building data centers to supply strong computing power for AI R&D and application. Singapore has a rich AI talent pool, thanks to its high-quality education system and open immigration policy and has over 10,000 AI professionals. Its National University and Nanyang Technological University lead in AI research and education They train droves of high-end AI talents and promote AI’s commercial application. Singapore’s close cooperation with the US, China, and EU in AI also spurs growth of its industry.

Singapore’s public is open to and willing to accept changes wrought by new technologies. Four out of five Singaporeans believe AI will positively affect society.

Retail sector focused AI firm Trax provides image recognition and data analysis to help retailers optimize inventory management and sales. It transforms everyday shelf images into actionable insights, while digital commerce and digital financial services AI company Advance Intelligence Group supplies digital transformation and anti-fraud and process automation.

Hong Kong’s development of AI companies is also outstanding. Its government has endowed a HKD130 billion (USD16.7 billion) fund, initiated an AI smart city plan, formed a commission to promote innovation and technology, and proposed building an international technology center. Hong Kong’s free economy, tax on profits of only 16.5 percent, and connection of mainland China with international markets confer unique advantages. Its science park has gathered over 150 AI-related companies and its Cyberport has cultivated over 100 AI startups. Hong Kong has over 95 percent fifth-generation wireless network coverage, one of the largest Asia-Pacific region data center clusters, and world-class universities that train over 5,000 information technology graduates annually. The proportion of international talent is high, and over 15 percent of IT practitioners come from outside Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the world’s fourth-largest in funding initial public offerings and Hong Kong has a consummated investment and financing system that eases AI companies’ funding and listings.

Initiated by the Hong Kong AIGT Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, AIGT is dedicated to promoting the popularization and application of AI worldwide. AIGT received a USD35 million angel round of financing in June 2024. MAD Gaze, which produces augmented reality smart glasses, has raised over USD30 million.

On the other side of Asia, the United Arab Emirates government lends great support to AI and appointed the world’s first AI minister in 2017. Its AI strategy will contribute AED335 billion (USD91 billion) to GDP by 2031 and use AI to halve government costs. Growth of annual AI investment growth is above 20 percent. The UAE has also set up an AED10 billion fund for AI projects, and offers an attractive business environment for AI firms, with no corporate and personal income taxes and 100 percent foreign investment after a company forms.

The UAE’s measures to lure and train AI talents include 10-year residency for AI industry experts, the world's first AI professional research university, cooperation with top universities around the world to establish research centers and high scholarship and research funds. Annual growth of AI talent tops 30 percent

The UAE also has world-class digital infrastructure, with 5G network coverage above 90 percent, an over 97 internet penetration rate, the Middle East’s largest data center cluster, and complete smart city infrastructure.

G42 is an AI solutions company valued at over USD10 billion focuses on AI solutions in healthcare, finance, and smart cities. Its open source Jais Arabic AI language model has 13 billion parameters and its training data sources include masses of Arabic data and English computer code.

The UAE is thus poised to go from strength to strength in AI.